The Nation has a story on Joe Gordon following his release following his pardon on lese majeste time in jail. It states that
the whereabouts of former lese majeste convict Joe Gordon are not known and the media has not heard from him or his lawyer since he was granted a royal pardon on Tuesday afternoon and the US Embassy reportedly whisked him away.
Joe’s lawyer, Arnon Nampa said he “understands’ Joe is being “cared for” by the United States Embassy since his release. He is expected to leave for the U.S. soon.
Arnon said,
“I think they want him to leave quietly. It’s a diplomatic move,” adding that Gordon had told him several times while in prison that he did not feel like a Thai and wanted to return to the US once out of jail.
Why would the U.S. want to “keep it quiet”? Probably image is the issue in Thailand for the Embassy fears the ultra-royalist mobs. PPT thinks the Embassy is also making up for lost ground, for they did almost nothing publicly for Joe when he was in jail and on trial.
The report states that “there has been some speculation as to whether Gordon is being barred from speaking to the media while in Thailand in order to prevent bilateral relations from being strained.” We have heard that, and we agree with the speculation.
When “US Embassy spokesperson Walter Braunohler said … the embassy ‘unfortunately’ would neither confirm nor deny anything about his whereabouts or say anything about the speculation that he is being prevented from speaking to media out of concerns for Gordon’s privacy.” Of course they won’t. Why is this “unfortunate” we wonder?
This is also interesting:
Asked if Gordon had been forced to confess, Arnon only said that his client had admitted to translating and uploading excerpts of the book after his request for bail had been denied eight times.
We take that to be a “yes.”
